Avengers: Volume 7: The Age of Khonshu
Author: Jason Aaron
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Publishing Date: 2021
Pgs: 178
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
From the dawn of time...to the end of the world? Trapped in an icy cave millennia in the past, Tony Stark has lost most of his armor and a good chunk of his mind. And tonight when the sun goes down and the devil comes around again, will iron Man lose what is left of his soul? Back in the present, EArth's mightiest villains united against a common threat: the Avengers! But even as the team faces a villainous uprising like no other, they come under attack from one of their own! Mummies are rising from their graves. Secret armies march by moonlight from K'un-Lun to Wakanda to Greenwich Village. A dark god invades Asgard. And the Moon Knight is unleashed like never before! So begins the Age of Khonshu. So fall the Avengers.
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Genre:
Comics
Superhero
Marvel Comics
Graphic Novels
Trade Paperbacks

Why this book:
Aaron’s run on Avengers is a must-read.
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Favorite Character:
Always loved Anti-Villain Namor, walking the line in service to his people. It's A bit that has been lost in most modern interpretations. Magneto too, but back in the day, he played more in the megalomaniacal. Of course the difference may have been that Namor was king. Too many of the old-school Anti-Hero/anti-villain characters have gone full hero and lost the thread that rounded them off. Why yes, I do have a lotta love and deep respect for the whatever-it-takes characters.

Favorite Scene:
Young Tony Stark wearing a Captain America shirt in the flashback. Yeah, worth the price of admission.

Loved the “sitting in a bar at the bottom of the sea, after a long day of battling Roxxon Energy Corporation's drug-addled dolphins with freaking laser beams on their head” scene. ...loved both of those scenes actually.

Wow. What Mephisto did to the Winthrop family through the ages. Wow. Deals with the devil exact a price.

Favorite Quote:
"Would you and your quivering chicken god care to join me?" Mephisto invites Moon Knight and Khonshu into his lavish Vegas hotel cell where he is "trapped."

Blade refering to Thor as Viking Jesus.

Cover and Interior Art:
Old West Gunslinger Mephisto is a freaking awesome visual.

Hmm Moments:
So Mephisto was showing up at billionaire ritual parties at Tony's house when he was a kid. Showing up and either cosplaying as or possessing Howard, his father. I must be out of touch with Iron Man's continuity. Tony was adopted? Don't recall Tony crossing up with Mephisto before either, and with as long as the two of them have both been active in the comics, it seems like they should have.

So Moonie isn't crazy, at least not this time. Still, he had become more a part of the community since his schizophrenic high tide mark.

The Werewolf Guard...sweet.

So, Khonshu and Moon Knight actually did a good thing, just went about it in a horrible way, with Khonshu's agenda written on top of it.

Uhm Moments:
So there is a reason that Moon Knight is doing what he's doing. That's good, at least. I hoped this wasn't a full-on heel turn.

WTF Moments/RUFKM Moments:
Wait! Part of this is because they didn't let Khonshu join their Caveman Avengers?

Meh / PFFT Moments:
I don’t like the Elon-ing of Howard Stark.

Namor doesn't need that fiery pigeon. He's The Avenging Son, Lord of the Seven Seas, Imperious Rex. He's stood down the Avengers before. He's faced down The Fantastic Four. He's faced monsters and warlords and aliens and mutants. He is cheapened in this portrayal.

Lol:
Jen thinking angry thoughts: politics, student loans, the Knicks

Wait...What?:
Dammit, Howard. What have you done?

The Sigh:
The overreliance on the Black Panther in this run of Avengers is becoming glaring. He's not a walking deus ex machina. He's a great character, but he's not omniscient.

Juxtaposition:
And Khonshu being Khonshu saw his chance and he took it. Wouldn't be surprised if Mephisto wasn't still pulling the strings, wouldn't be the first time he fooled a god.

Anachronism:
The Panther fighting Moon Knight and, also fighting Khonshu at the same time, at different places is confusing. Either one of them is Mephisto or we've got a flashback that isn't being spelled out.

Future Wolverine-Phoenix alongside future Avengers vs Doom, The Planet. I love these vignettes hinting at untold tales.

Missed Opportunity:
Always thought it was a missed opportunity that at some point deep Moon Knight's continuity, it wasn't revealed that his personalities were multiple different people who were combined for some nefarious reason and were only still alive and "separate" because of Khonshu's influence caused by their full moon death before one of his ancient altars and subsequent resurrection.

Predictability/Non-Predictability:
Predictable fall of Khonshu, even the way it went.

Soundtrack:
When T'Challa walks through the entrance of Khonshu's throne room; battered, bruised, but unbroken, after fighting his way through the Moon Cultists, I hear Kenny Wayne Sheppard's "Blue on Black."
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Pacing:
Great pacing.

Last Page Sound:
So Mephisto's big plan goes on. Of course, Mephisto being Mephisto his plans are always ongoing.

Author Assessment:
Jason Aaron is money. I will read more stuff by him.

Reread Pile:
First one in awhile that I could see myself re-reading at some point.
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I could not finish this one. An incoherent mismash of vampires, Dracula, the Devil (Mephisto), undersea monsters attack the Avengers for no particular reason. Meanwhile Moon Knight is going around beating them (yes the Avengers) up. I couldn't sense any improvement to this poor plot so I pulled the pin. ( )

With the first two chapters, I thought the big super-group smackdown that has been teased since the start of the series was finally going to get underway, but no, after touching base with everyone, the rest of the book is a throwaway digression into Moon Knight trying to solve the problems of the world by helping his benefactor, the Egyptian Moon god Khonshu, take over the world. As the title suggests, this is a short and watered down retread of Age of Ultron, Age of Apocalypse, Inferno, etc. headed by Marvel's short and watered down version of Batman.

(New York City and Gotham City have to be the scoreboard leaders in cities that have been under the control of the most comic book villains, gods and other entities.)

I'm leaning toward a two-star rating since it is so disposable, but I liked the pertinent bits in the opening and closing pages and some of the cheesy fight scenes in the middle. ("The Fist of Khonshu. The Fist of Khonshu. The Fist of Khonshu.") ( )